Easter is a holiday rich with tradition. In this article I’ll share a few international Easter treats. Then I’ll show how you and your kids can make one of them: a traditional Easter basket cookie from Italy.

Why Bake International Treats for Easter?

Most children are big fans of the Easter Bunny and get excited thinking about the baskets of goodies he brings. And while we love that Bunny too, there’s a whole world of Easter fun to explore!

There are tons of traditions that go along with Easter. In many English-speaking countries, Saturdays are spent preparing for the holiday, while Easter Sunday means going to church, having a meal with family and participating in Easter egg hunts. Egg rolling and egg tapping are also popular activities.

When you look at traditions of other countries, it opens up a multitude of conversations you can have with your kids. In what ways do people in other countries celebrate holidays differently? What foods do they eat? What international tradition would be fun for our family to start this Easter?

Since Easter is a holiday celebrated around the world, it’s interesting to learn about how it’s observed. Trying foods from different countries is one way to bring home the flavors of the globe.

When’s the last time you saw a hedgehog cake for Easter? Or for any holiday?

The beauty of the hedgehog cake is that it’s a “no bake” cake. Just layer the ingredients into the shape of a hedgehog and ice it.

Russian Easter Pashka Cake. In Russia and Estonia, they celebrate with a Pashka Russian Easter Cheesecake. The blog Face Full of Cake features this recipe, which you press into a flowerpot to get the right shape.

This Easter cheesecake is traditionally seen in Russia and Estonia.

And in Italy, they celebrate with delicious cookies in the shape of Easter baskets, complete with dyed Easter eggs baked right in.

These Easter-basket cookies are mouth-watering and cute as can be!

Before we make this favorite Italian Easter treat, which has an egg incorporated into the design, take your children on an international journey of other Easter delights. A quick search of the Internet will give you even more recipes and insights into the traditions of other countries, like the ones I mentioned from Germany, Russia and Italy.

When I was a little girl, the Easter Bunny brought Easter basket cookies to us every year. They taste like sugar cookies, but are even more fun to make! Remember when I was talking about family traditions? This one is good for starters.

You Will Need

For the eggs:

6 hard-boiled eggs

Dye

Paper towels

Bowls or cups

Tongs

Water

Vinegar

For the cookie dough:

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of vegetable oil

6 large eggs

2 tablespoons of baking powder

1 tablespoon of vanilla

6 cups of flour

Mixing bowl

Rolling pin

Cookie sheet

For frosting the cookies:

1 cup of confectioner’s sugar

¼-½ cup of milk

Sprinkle toppings

Preparation Time

1 hour to color the eggs

30 minutes for the cookie dough

Activity Time

20 minutes to bake the cookies

10 minutes to let them cool

10 minutes to ice and decorate them

Location

Kitchen

One of the wonderful things about this activity is you stretch out the excitement and do it in a couple of different parts. You can decorate the eggs in the morning, and make the cookies in the afternoon.

Color these delicious. Let’s get started.

#1: Boil and Color Your Eggs

Your Italian Easter cookie adventure starts when you color some Easter eggs. You’ll probably already be making eggs to dye for your Sunday morning Easter egg hunt, so make 6 extra hard-boiled eggs for these special cookies.

More on Easter Eggs…

Eggs have been a symbol of rebirth and springtime growth in countries around the world for thousands of years. The origin of the Easter egg hunt is thought to be in Germany, where children would make nests for Osterhase, an egg-laying hare.

We created an Easter egg hunt PDF that features jokes you can print and hide in plastic Easter eggs for your kids.

Time-saving and planning tip: Hard-boil your eggs the night before you and your kids decorate them. That way you won’t hear, “Are they ready yet?” Instead you will hear, “Yay!” or something to that effect.

Anticipation and excitement—getting ready to color the boiled eggs.

There are a several different ways you can dye Easter eggs. The simplest: Fill small bowls with a mixture of water and vinegar, add dye and gently drop in the eggs. Make sure they sit in the liquid for 3-5 minutes so the dye holds. Then use the tongs to carefully take them out.

Bake the cookies at 350° Fahrenheit (177° Celsius) for about 20 minutes.

You’ll know your cookies are done when they start to brown just a bit.

#4: Make Icing

While your cookies are baking, make the icing.

Pour the confectioner’s sugar into a bowl and add the milk, one tablespoon at time. Make your icing thin enough to brush over your cookies.

The icing uses just two ingredients: confectioner’s sugar and milk.

Once your cookies have cooled, dip a pastry brush into the icing and brush the cookies. If you don’t have a pastry brush, just use a butter knife or spoon to spread the icing.

The icing will help your sprinkles stick to the cookies.

While the icing is still wet, decorate with sprinkles.

Get as creative as you want with your decorations!

Remember, this is a family project. Part of the fun is chatting while you bake, working together and admiring each other’s designs.

Here are a couple of beautiful options straight from Italy.

The dove is a popular Easter symbol in Italy, so you’ll find lots of cookies shaped that way. This one below is straight from a kitchen in Italy!

This is Columba di Pasqua—an Easter dove cookie.

The braided cookie is another popular and intricate shape. This is also from an Italian kitchen!

Another Italian cookie.

Some Final Thoughts…

Italian Easter basket cookies are fun to make as a family. It takes dedicated family time to work all the steps. And at the end of the process, you might have a wonderful family tradition, along with a yummy treat. Your tradition can be to make these cookies every year or try a new tradition from a different country, as a family.

What do you think? Have you ever made Easter basket cookies? Are you going to make them this year? What are your favorite Easter recipes? Share your favorite traditional Easter recipes in the comments—and post a picture or two. I’d love to give them a try.